The other day, a close and dear friend of mine told me about something he heard, some theory that says that in our life, we have approximately 90 (non-sequential) crucial and decisive life-changing days – like the day you met someone at the subway and now is your best friend or that one weird thing a stranger told you but it stuck with you for some days and eventually changed your whole perspective on life, etc…
I started to think about mine: Like the day I learned my first chord on the guitar or the day my brother was born. Those were the happy ones. There was the dark (but in a weird way) helpful days as well like the day my uncle died. Basically, we construct and shape our personality our entire lives but there are specific days to start that process. I fancied that theory a lot because I’m a romantic and I think that the most beautiful love stories are born on days like those.
As the poem roles on, Gabriel, the latest from Marie Naffah, I felt she was beautifully telling me about one of those weirdly transformative stories. Something poetic, cinematic, biblical, and sacred: life-changing.
In the aftermath of Cage and California, London-based Marie Naffah released last Friday (November 27th) this very soulful and touching stand-alone single about Gabriel, a stranger she met outside a church in Sussex and changed and moved her.
Sung by the piano, Gabriel is deeply simple. Marie’s voice is amazingly unique and the whole song reflects Nick Cave and Florence Welch’s influences all around. Between angelical and smokey, this track is highly catchy too, with a chorus that is both jazzy and pop but without ever losing the deep and meaningful side of it.
Lyrically brilliant, Gabriel is the kind of song we should listen to if you, as I do, like a good story and a good thinker.